Everton look better playing 4-4-2

Tim Cahill has dug Everton out of so many holes it seems churlish to suggest that Everton are prospering in his absence. Some may say that Jermaine Beckford's excellent performance against Scunthorpe United was just a case of him finding his true level but his workrate and running off the ball to find space on the left to cross made a lot of room for Louis Saha in the game against Tottenham Hotspur as well.

Saha, when fit, is an excellent centre-forward even if he looks uncomfortable in the lone striker role and struggles when his instinct takes him into the same positions that Cahill tends to occupy. It will be interesting to see if David Moyes sticks to this plan for Sunday's derby or opts for a more conservative 4-5-1 with Mikel Arteta behind Saha. If Beckford does play and teams up on the left with the rampaging Leighton Baines, surely in the form of his life, Liverpool's right-sided centre-back will have to be careful not to be dragged too far out of the middle to cover for Glen Johnson or Saha will find gaps in the penalty area to exploit.

Don't let Watford cut in from the touchline

Generations of full-backs have been taught to shepherd players in wide positions infield but Hartlepool United must rue taking the orthodox approach with Piero Mingoia and Danny Graham.

Both were ushered away from the touchline, allowed to dribble and unleashed superb shots to score. Watford's equaliser and their fourth goal ultimately came from genuinely classy finishes but Mingoia and Graham were given their opportunities by defenders playing the percentages and paying the price.

Malky Mackay has a very youthful Watford side playing neat, attractive and effective football but Graham Taylor must have been purring at Marvin Sordell's second goal. Immaculately controlling Dale Bennett's long ball and poking it past Jake Kean brought back memories of Maurice Johnston pouncing on Wilf Rostron's clearances from Taylor's first spell at the club.

Denílson has lessons to learn

Cesc Fábregas's put-down of the Brazilian midfielder's clumsy and witless foul on Max Gradel that earned Leeds United a penalty at the Emirates was magnificently withering. "At this stage when you're a professional footballer you cannot do this type of penalty, so easy for them," he said.

At times Denílson has been the very model of a "continuity" player with the courage to accept the ball in tight positions and establishes control with short, rhythmical passing that allows more advanced midfielders or overlapping full-backs to manoeuvre opposition defenders around. This aspect of his play screams subtlety and intelligence.

Yet he is prone to making daft mistakes and not just by sticking out a leg in the penalty area. Twelve minutes from time and with Arsenal losing 1-0, he fouled Bradley Johnson and retreated 10 yards for the free-kick even though the referee, Phil Dowd, was signalling for him to come back to receive his yellow card. He just stood there for almost a minute, wasting time that Arsenal needed to equalise. As his captain implied, Denílson has enough experience now not to indulge in such follies.

Paul Jewell has a tough job to revive Ipswich Town

Paul Jewell worked wonders at Bradford City and Wigan Athletic, mastering a knowing look when his chairmen Geoffrey Richmond and Dave Whelan made what seemed unhelpful public pronouncements about players. At the end of six years at Wigan, having secured two promotions, a League Cup final and kept them in the Premier League for two seasons, there was even talk about him as a potential England manager.

Thirteen months at Derby County, littered with humiliating defeats, tabloid stories about his personal life and a simmering rift with Robbie Savage, his professional future outside Sky's Soccer Saturday studio looked bleak.

In four management spells he has worked miracles twice, taking Bradford and Wigan into the Premier League, and failed with Sheffield Wednesday and Derby where he went 10 months without a league win. He lost his knack of making astute signings that had served Wigan so well and ended up with Darren Powell, Laurent Robert, Danny Mills and Mile Sterjovski, though he did pull off a coup by persuading Kris Commons to join on a free transfer from Nottingham Forest.

At Portman Road he joins a club that seems to have been in a state of permanent revolution under Roy Keane with players in and out of favour and in and out of the door. What they need is a little stability and someone who can get Conor Wickham, so rich in promise, to score the goals his talent demands. A 2011 version of Arjan De Zeeuw to marshal the defence would not go amiss, either. He should have enough leverage with Marcus Evans to provide funds which have not been readily forthcoming to get the reinforcements a patchy squad needs.

Dalglish's first blueprint

This is not the place for in-depth musings on Liverpool but one observation. For all the talk of Kenny Dalglish buying the title at Blackburn Rovers and references to how he remodelled the Reds in 1987 by using Ian Rush's transfer fee to buy John Aldridge, John Barnes and Peter Beardsley, his achievements in the 1985-86 season may be more relevant to Liverpool's current predicament. He got the best out of former fringe players Paul Walsh, Craig Johnston and Gary Gillespie, turned Steve Nicol into a fine attacking right-back and got Ronnie Whelan and Jan Molby playing the best football of their careers.

He starts from a much lower base, doesn't have Ronnie Moran's seen-it-all-before-sunshine intensity and acumen to call on as his taskmaster and, of course, can't reluctantly reclaim a first-team role himself in the spring to give the side fresh impetus. But he has succeeded in management before without investing heavily in players. Yes, it was 25 years ago but his appointment of Steve Clarke, a fine coach, was a very canny first step.